Entries in New York
(1)

Cindy and I figured it'd be fun to work our way through iconic 1970s and -80s movies set in NYC. So last night, we started with Brooklyn's own Saturday Night Fever, which is surprisingly good. Beyond the boss disco moves, it's a story of class and ambition, manhood and misogyny, and a very particular place (Bay Ridge) and time (1975 - post-Vietnam, post-Watergate, post-counterculture, but mid-stagnation). It's about borough kids who live with their parents, never go to Manhattan, work hourly jobs all week, and then erupt in a tribal frenzy of swaggering misbehavior on Saturday nights. A great movie. That happy discovery, though, led us to spark up SNF's sequel, Staying Alive, which is engrossingly terrible -- hell, repellent -- in every way. The plot is absurd, the characters stripped of depth and unmoored from the deep sense of place that made SNF so alluring. Travolta spends much of the movie in a sweaty thong leotard (thongitard?) and headband. The dancing is so laughable it makes Showgirls seem like the Bolshoi. Frank Stallone's soundtrack is excruciatingly limp. Etc. The only good bit is the final 30 seconds of Travolta strut, which is the only moment in the movie that looks back, gloriously accompanied by the Bee-Gees, to Saturday Night Fever.

So to avoid repeating that mistake, I asked people on Facebook what else should go on the list for our festival of films from the modern ruins of New York. And the people responded. Here are their recommendations for the 1970s, sorted by category (I'll tackle the '80s in a future post):